Wednesday, 27 July 2016

Dude, I gotta say...I love when friends' bands are good. That seems like such an obvious statement, but one of the worst feelings in the world is when a friend sends you their band (or worse asks you in person how you felt after just watching a set) and you don't like it, and gotta figure out if you should dance around things or just flat out tell them the hard truth. Well, in the case of Moth Slasher, the hard truth is that they are fucking disgustingly great.

Moth Slasher is kinda hard to pigeonhole, which is something that's always refreshing. My first impression was that they reminded me of The Locust's earliest recordings (splits with Jenny Piccolo and Man Is The Bastard/Noise) sans blast beats, but keeping the industrial/electronics, mixed with Slices. So basically it's totally blown out, filthy, crushingly heavy, and unpredictable; but dirging and rhythmic. But wait, there's more. Moth Slasher manages to make nods to one of my all time favorites, Happy Flowers. There are parts which just completely fall apart -- seemingly forgoing all structure, and embracing pure musical decomposition -- while still relying on traditional punk instruments as the means for producing sonic mayhem. And what glorious mayhem it is.

So hold onto your hat and watch the valuables...it's going to be a bumpy ride.*

Sunday, 17 July 2016

If you're familiar with this blog, I'm sure you know how much we (I?) love both Blank Veins and No Balls. And really, what's not to love? Both bands have fantastic outputs and play with the repetitive noise rock formula in distinctive, instantly recognizable ways. I've known this split was in the works for a while from correspondence with Blank Veins, and I gotta say it's everything I hoped for.

I guess I should start with No Balls since they're the band on side A. No Balls is essentially half of Brainbombs, and while similarities can be drawn between the two, No Balls puts more emphasis on the hypnotic nature of their music, generally without as much focus on vocals, often ditching them in favor of instrumentals -- the latter of which is the case on this split. But don't worry sports fans, because the atonal trumpet we all know and love fills in the gaps. These guys have an uncanny ability to consistently churn out hit after hit, and I have no idea how they do it.

Fewer people know about Blank Veins (a shame considering how good they are), but hopefully this split gets them the attention they deserve. Hailing from Greece, Blank Veins have carved out a niche for themselves dishing out what can best be described as a terrifying mixture of Brainbombs and DNA. And they also use trumpet. Honestly, they're one of the coolest noise rock bands to come out in the past five years, and despite a relatively small output, have a total mastery of their craft. I know they have future releases planned (one being a split 7" that needs a label...wink, wink) and you should all keep an eye on them (not related to the "wink, wink" comment), because I can guarantee it's all gonna be great.

Short version for short people: big bad riffs and trumpets.
EDIT: Blank Veins use a sax. But it still works to a similar effect.

Tracklist:
1. No Balls - Bright Eyes
2. No Balls - Total Eclipse
3. No Balls - Back On The SNRI
4. Blank Veins - Till It Subsides
5. Blank Veins - The Next Time
6. Blank Veins - Most Of The Fabric

I don't even know where the fuck to start with this LP. It is, without a doubt, one of the coolest things to come out this year. Or really in recent memory, honestly. When I clicked play on LVEUM's bandcamp, I was not prepared at all, and I don't think anything I say in this review can fully prepare any of you. It's not only that it's really that out there, but it's also that fucking good.

Anxiety is a new band out of the UK -- no surprise based on how much truly interesting shit (No Form, Perspex Flesh, Frau, etc) has been coming out of there in recent years -- who feature members of The Lowest Form (another favorite) and others. But I'm not sure that really has any significance in terms of how this sounds. Anxiety sounds like...well...anxiety -- yea yea, I know it's corny. Their unique blend of all those various genres I listed above is an unstoppable force of nervous energy; like a sonic panic attack. Everything about what Anxiety does has a touch of madness; even the more straightforward (relatively speaking) hardcore punk leaning tracks reek of influence from oddball bands like Feederz and Saccharine Trust. Add in the early SPK and Monte Cazazza-style electronics, The Ex and GRRR-style art punk, dark and ominous textures, and confusing progressions...and you still probably can't imagine what this sounds like. The best way I can even semi-accurately describe Anxiety is that they sound like a hardcore punk Minimal Man. And how fucking sick is that?

I listened to this ten times in a row the day I heard it. And I'm still playing it over and over and over. If you don't download this immediately, that's a moral decision you'll have to live with for the rest of your life.